Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Here's Reed Hastings speaking to CCSA Charter Conference 2014 last
week, via Politico, during which he rails against the the vagaries of
local elected school boards and urges aggressive charter expansion.
(He's not the first to make this argument. Matt Miller's 2008 Atlantic
piece, First, Kill All the School Boards,
is another notable example.) Don't agree with Hastings? Show your
commitment by canceling your Netflix subscription immediately, even if
you have episodes of House of Cards still to watch.

)

I am VERY glad that I have never given Netflix a penny! I highly recommend you do the same!

11 comments:

My sister in law gives us a Netflix subscription for Christmas every year and I have to say that the selection of DVDs available through the library system is much better and best of all, they are free. Kill the libraries too, I guess.

Let's get our heads out of the sand and past the idea that our local School Boards elections are popularity contests. Local Control is vital to a good public school system but unless we start electing School Board members, with the best available fiscal and personnel management skills, we will doom public education.

I dunno, Netflix is awfully convenient. You can use it across multiple devices, they charge a low flat fee, their original programming is decent (and commercial-free) and there's no issue with storage. No question these uber-entrepreneurs are jumping into various causes overconfident in their abilities to solve any problem through the application of business principles and wads of cash. But is he really wrong about School Board elections? We of course have a high profile example of a school board race in Madison that broke spending records and the winner is now campaigning for ... We hate losing local control because we despise the group running our state into the ground. But surely we can reform the local selection process? I disagree with Hastings totally that charter schools are the answer but I am hopeful that someone who has a track record of listening to customers and reversing course can do so even on this issue. I plan to email Netflix and express my dissatisfaction. For those who think people like that can't change - Salon today features once again Diane Ravitch: http://www.salon.com/2014/03/12/public_schools_under_siege_diane_ravitch_warns_salon_some_cities_soon_will_have_none/

No, we hate losing local control because it is a complete betrayal of the American tradition of Democracy as built up over 200 years. Centralizing all decision making, both large and small, makes it more convenient for Oligarchs to strip Wisconsin of it's natural resources and pollute the hell out of everything in the process. Bribing a handful of State Senators is much more efficient than bribing thousands of local officials.

And yet you didn't mention the kids anywhere in your desire for local control. And that's why the plutocrats have made so many in-roads. Look to Karen Lewis as the example on how to frame the issues from a local control aspect.

Did you even click on the link? its not that I disagree with a presentation they "cablecast"(what the hell is cablecast anyway?) but it is the actual CEO of Netflix talking like he just left dinner with formerly convicted felon Scott Jensen.

People can make up their own mind if they want to cancel Netflix or not but they should know the profit is heading right to the pockets of formerly convicted felon and morally bankrupt Scott Jensens pocket.